Farm Wages in Belgium. 



gaged by the year, or by the month ; their wages ranging 

 from £i to £i 12s. per month, while the wages of female 

 indoor farm-servants vary from £ 1 to £1 4s. monthly. The 

 hours of labour, alike for the farmer's family and the servants, 

 vary from 4 or 7 a.m. to 5 or 9 p.m., according to the season. 

 On small and medium sized farms the family and the servants 

 have their meals together, the ordinary diet consisting of 

 bread (made from rye or spelt), butter, milk, and pork. Meat, 

 other than pork, is provided only on special occasions. The 

 beverage consists of water or coffee, and sometimes beer. On 

 the larger farms the servants take their meals apart from the 

 family ; salt beef is sometimes provided for them two or three 

 times a week, and beer every day during the summer. 



The number of day and occasional labourers employed 

 naturally varies according to the size of the holdings 

 and the machinery available. While one or two day 

 labourers may be engaged on a small farm, there 

 may be ten or twelve on a large one, but this number 

 would include several women. The men receive from 

 7 hd. to iod. a day in winter, and in summer from is. 3d. 

 to is. jjd. with board, or from is. yid. to 2s. id. 

 without meals. The women are paid 6d. or yd. in winter and 

 iod. in summer, with board ; and from j^d. to iod. in winter, 

 and from is. oM. to is. 3d. in summer, without board. The 

 wages earned are sometimes paid in kind (rye and potatoes), 

 or in the form of cartage on the labourers' own holdings, or 

 land is allotted to them to cultivate. 



Occasional and harvest labourers are paid in various ways 

 usually either by piece work, or they are allowed to gather 

 the second crop of hay, or they receive a portion of the pro- 

 duce of the main crop. Many of them possess small holdings 

 and others rent small portions of land, but very few attain to 

 the position of farmers. A few of them emigrate to the 

 industrial centres, and their number is gradually diminishing 

 with the extension of the use of agricultural machinery. 



